Toby went to the groomer today and came back all shiny, with his nails nicely trimmed, something I tend to wimp out on doing 
I found the cocoon on an oak leaf the other day – I’ve no idea what species of moth came from it, but imagine it has to have been a fairly large one, as the cocoon measures about 1.5″.
You may remember this, which I thought/hoped had been fixed when the computer repair guy came and replaced the power supply, and that I was back up and running. Um … only until Friday evening when we came back from a run to town, and it refused to start again, so I guess it’s time to get back on the phone and see what they’re going to do about it this time.
The To-Do list for today included going to Soulard Market in St Louis to order our Thanksgiving turkey – we’ve been getting one from the same farmer every year for a while now, and they’ve all been tasty, moist and tender. There were also some apples, mushrooms, a stewing hen and a few other things that followed us home. First though we had lunch at John D. McGurk’s Pub – don’t know that a tuna steak sandwich is particularly Irish, but they’re sure good!
Have a great rest of the weekend!
Archergal at Knitting With Dogs posted this link which I found really fascinating: Furr Homespun Dress.
If you scroll down a bit (about 1.5 “Page Downs” on my display), there is a box containing an estimate of the time needed to produce 30 yards of homespun fabric, then she continues,
… it should take almost seven 10 hour days to produce the 5 2/3 yard of cloth for the Furr dress.
Note that the 7 10-hour days is just the cloth, there’s still making the dress! As much as I love to spin (weaving, not so much), this makes me very thankful that we have ready-made fabric and clothes easily available! I have a dear friend (who’s acquainted with the current owner of the dress) who makes historical costumes for re-enactors and those who work at historical sites, so I have a great appreciation for the amount of time and work involved in making a dress like this after you already have the fabric.
Even though I was well prepared, we didn’t have any visitors on Halloween, which leaves us with more candy than we really need to have sitting around I think now everyone either takes kids to town to trick or treat, or to arranged events. It’s probably safer overall, but I do miss getting to see the littler ones in their costumes.
After our long run of wet weather throughout October, I loved having an intensely colorful sunset on Friday. It was beautiful through one of the new entry doors, or all on its own!
I’ve got some actual knitting (don’t faint!) that I can blog. Since I finished the dark blue socks, I went for some variety – admittedly still blue, but several shades, as in Trekking XXL (#104 – darker than shown). As I’m between deadline projects, the first sock has been moving right along.
I was also playing with a cable I saw – after 1 whole repeat (indicated by the black line), I decided to see what would happen if I flipped it over, and it makes sort of riff on the Hugs & Kisses Cable, which is one of my favorites. I need to play with this one some more!
The view from the deck.
Given that this is already the wettest October on record and it’s still raining, I think our song for the month should be Johnny Cash’s Five Feet High and Risin’
A friend sent me this link – I think it’s neat. There are a couple of other videos there as well.
The “not a good sign” has gotten worse. My main computer totally refused to start at all today, so I was on the phone for a while. The best news is that under the warranty/service contract, someone is coming out to fix it tomorrow; we thought we’d probably have to take the computer up to St. Louis for service. Stay tuned!
ETA: The computer repair guy showed up on Tuesday as promised, replaced the power supply and my computer is back – hooray for Dell!
You might remember this hole in the wall. As of today, the window is in, and all the doorways have doors as well, so we’re only waiting for 1 more window (ordered later than all the others).
In the last photo, notice the board in the corner that’s leaning against the wall (below the smaller window)? That’s a very important board— it’s currently propping up the phone interface box so we have phone service, and even more important, internet access
of socks; nothing fancy, just my default ribbed socks in dark blue, but I’ll enjoy wearing them. Details: Regia plus Cotton, color #50; 68 stiches on size 1 bamboo double-points. I did appreciate my Ott Light when it came to picking up stitches along the edges of the flap
The weather hasn’t been construction-friendly – last week the rain and cold slowed things to a virtual crawl, but this week they’re back making good time with the siding. Otherwise progress is slow—2 doors came in hinged on the wrong side, another one has a bad spot, so we’re waiting for replacements for those. The shower stall hasn’t come in, so the entry doors that are sitting here can’t be installed.
On a cheerier note, we’re getting some nice spots of color – these are just a few.
Joyknits!
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